Archive for April 6, 2012

Lost in all the writing over the NBC Zimmerman 911 phone call edit, NewsBusters’ Tim Graham writes about CNN basically walking back earlier discussion about what George Zimmerman said during those 911 calls…

NBC isn’t the only network slinking away from overcooking the case against George Zimmerman’s alleged racism. On the March 21 edition of Anderson Cooper 360, a CNN audio expert enhanced Zimmerman’s 9-1-1 call and suggested he had used a racial slur, “f–ing coon,” as he was following Trayvon Martin. Reporter Gary Tuchman asserted: “It certainly sounds like that word to me.”

Two weeks later on the same show on April 4, CNN re-assessed the tape with another CNN expert, and now felt it suggests George Zimmerman was just chilly, muttering the words “f–ing cold” under his breath. Tuchman explained: “The reason some say that would be relevant is because it was unseasonably cold in Florida that night and raining.” Oopsy.

(snip)

Cooper found it “fascinating” and turned to legal expert Jeffrey Toobin to announce how important this finding could be: “It’s extremely, extremely significant because the federal government is not allowed to prosecute just your ordinary every day murder. Two people fighting on the street is not a federal crime. However, if one person shoots another based on racial hostility, racial animus, that does become a federal crime.”

I expect we’re going to be hearing more about what CNN says it’s going to do to prevent such apparently reckless speculation from taking place again…

A couple of days after NBC gets loudly and roundly criticized for its statement regarding the conclusion of its investigation and its attempt not go into any further detail, all of a sudden a whole mess of information comes pouring out. Connection between the two? Who knows…

The sources at the network, who declined to identify the producer, said NBC News executives did not know the 911 call was misleadingly edited until news reports surfaced days later on right-leaning blogs including Newsbusters.org and Breitbart.com.

“IN SHOCK”

The sources described the producer’s actions as a very bad mistake, but not deliberate.

NBC News declined to comment on Thursday. The network said on Tuesday it would not release names of the employees involved. It has apologized for the incident.

One of the sources said that NBC News President Steve Capus would not lose his job over the incident.

Oh…my…God…was there ever any possibility that Capus was ever even in the remotest danger of having any fallout from this catch him? NO! NO! NO! So why even go there? Someone has an agenda.

Update: The New York Times’ Brian Stelter writes that the Producer has been fired…

The person was fired on Thursday, according to two people with direct knowledge of the disciplinary action who declined to be identified discussing internal company matters. They also declined to name the fired producer. A spokeswoman for NBC News declined to comment.